An Eagle Amongst Chickens | Rabbi Yisroel Majeski

Rabeinu Yona tells us that the first step in Avodas Hashem, in serving God, is that you have to know who you are and where you come from. Because if you don't know that, you can't start your mission. If you're in the army and you don't know your job, if you're a pilot and you think that you're supposed to be giving out donuts, you can't fight in the war. We have to know who we are. One of my favorite stories is the story of the eagle who lost his egg, and the egg grows up amongst the chickens. And this eagle's walking amongst the chickens, and it looks a little funny, but, okay, different people look different ways. And this eagle, his whole life is living like a chicken. Walks like a chicken, clucks like a chicken, eats the little seeds off the floor, but it's really an eagle. And one day, all the chickens are walking and Mama Chicken is leading the way. And there's this shadow hovering over them. And they look up, and they all say, Mama, Mama Chicken. What's that? Mama chicken says, That's the eagle, the king of the sky. Mama, mama, look at that eagle. We wish we could fly. And Mama Chicken says, Don't we all? But we're just chickens. And this eagle walks all the way up to Mama Chicken and says, Mama Chicken, is there any way I could fly like that? Mama Chicken says, I'm sorry, you're just a chicken. And the eagle never learns how to fly. We are all eagles living with a bunch of chickens. We’re so much greater. We’re so much bigger. We're meant to soar. We're not meant to play in the mud. Princes don't play in the mud. If we want to overcome this challenge of Shemiras Einayim, it starts by knowing who we are. Never forget who you are.